The textile of Odisha is a reflection of rich heritage and diverse tradition in the field of textiles. Odisha is renowned for the unique tradition of textiles from the tribal regions of Odisha. Niyamgiri hill range is spread over 250 square km in southwest Odisha, situated in the eastern part of India. Dongria Kandhas are numerically the largest among the 62 tribes of Odisha. For centuries Dongria Kandhas have made “Niyamgiri” their abode. In their houses and community sacred spaces, Dongrias paint stories of their association with “Niyamgiri” in the form of mural art. Dongria kandhas are known for their colourful attire. Weaving is an age-old tradition of this tribal community of Niyamgiri hills and they preserved the age-old weaving technique. The “kapdaganda” is a woven and embroidered shawl with tribal motifs by the women of dongria kandha residing in the tribal -dominated region covering Bisamcuttack, Muniguda and Ksinghpur area of Niyamgiri hills of Rayagada district of Odisha.
It has been an age-old practice of women of Niyamgiri hill ranges to present these pieces of art (Kapdaganda) to those they love and respect. The beautiful kapdaganda shawls have bright colours with the design of their deity- Niyamraja, the “god of mountains”, is an intricate part of Indian handloom. The organic kapdaganda shawl is ethereal and can be considered a rare piece of art. The hand -crafted motifs in the shawl mainly lines and triangular shapes reflect the importance of mountains for the community.
Origin of Kapdaganda
There is no historical evidence about the origin of the “kapdaganda”, but it was believed that the community members during their visit to Jeypore king’s court wore kapdaganda. The practice of using the “kapdaganda” shawl by the Dongria Kandhas started during the period of King Vikram Dev of Jeypore in the mid-17th century.
Dongria kandha Textile
Dongria Kandha men used to wear white loincloth with richly embroidered ends is termed drill or lenguti. It is 16 feet in length and 1 foot and a half in width and is wrapped around the waist several times in such a way that the two embroidered ends hang in the front and the back as a flap.
Dongria women use two pieces of cloth, and each piece is of four to five feet in length and two feet in width. The first piece is wrapped around the waist with a knot in the front. The second piece covers the upper part of the body and is tied to form a knot at the backside of the neck. Both men and women prefer to use white coarse clothes throughout the year for their comfort while doing the daily activities.
Both men and women of the Dongria Kandha community wear kapdaganda, resembling a shawl, during special occasions. Hand embroidered with colourful motifs on the off-white shawl, the kapdaganda is presented to the Dhangra (boy, partner) by the Dhangri (the Kandha girl) as a symbol of love, respect, and representation of Niyamgiri. So they have an emotional attachment in the pursuit of crafting the shawl.
Significance of Motifs
The Dongria Kandha community nurtures a deep reverence for their God, “Niyamraja”. The forests, the rivers, and the hills are the motifs of the Dongria Kandh shawl that we love and cherish. Every aspect of their life is influenced by their surrounding environment and nature, which is reflected in their weaving pattern, like the temple design seen on the pallu and border, illustrates the hills and mountains of the village. Whereas the buttas of the body represent the flower, fruits and different colour strips represent the rivers. The motifs in the shawl are mainly lines, and temple shapes reflect the importance of mountains for the community. These motifs of temple and mountain also show the passionate connection with their surrounding environment and represent the simplicity and sustainable livelihood of this ethnic group.
The motifs of the shawl have specific significance; they start the embroidery works with the “watta”, i.e., the four straight lines of four colour starting from brown, red, yellow, and green running at the bottom of the cloth, represent the imaginary boundary wall of their habitation. It symbolises social security and protection from evil forces. “Keriwatta”, this design is derived from the tamarind leaf. “Kuddilinga,” the triangular design symbolises Niyamgiri Hills, the abode of “Niyamraja,” their household deity. “Karlikanna” the triangular shape design, represents the axe, which symbolises power, energy, aggressiveness, revenge, and the protector of their dongar (mountain). Being forest dwellers, everything learned by them from the forest is culturally exposed in their design.
Socio-cultural Significance of Colours
The motifs are embroidered on an off-white coarse cloth by using bright colored threads like red, green, yellow and brown. They believe that red, green, brown, and yellow colours are most auspicious and use them in their embroidery. The depiction of each colour has different meanings and purposes, and each colour conveys some implications manifested with some socio-cultural value. Sometimes they are metamorphic. These colours have also specific significance, and are related to nature.
- Green (aka): Dongrias live on the lap of nature, so green is the most favourite one. The green represents hills, green crop fields, and their fertile mountain ecology. It also represents the germination of seeds; its growth and spread of branches symbolises the growth and development of the community.
- Red (Kambiti): Red signifies their religious faith (emblem of blood and sacrifices of animals), energy, power, revenge, aggression, etc.
- Yellow (Hinga): Yellow denotes peace, calm, togetherness, smile, pleasure, happiness, and their cash crop turmeric. It also symbolises their origin and represents prosperity for the family and the community.
- Brown (Mirga): The brown represents “Dharani Penu” (the Earth), the goddess the most important to the Dongrias.
Materials and Embroidery of Kapdaganda
The Dongrias prefer to use white coarse organic cotton clothes as base fabric. This white cloth is locally known as Ganda kapda. They use four colours of thread, namely red, green, yellow, and brown, for the embroidery of kapdaganda, and each colour has its own significance. Originally, Dongaria Kandhas did not weave the cloth and got it from the adjacent village or haats (weekly market) from the Domb weavers by barter, in exchange of forest and agricultural produce. Earlier Dongria Kandhas used natural colours like, turmeric, wild flowers, bean leaves, roots, and even soil to dye threads for these traditional shawls. Then the Dongaria girls, with excellent craftsmanship, embroidered the coarse off-white fabric by needle using red, green, brown, and yellow threads into a unique embroidered shawl known as Kapdaganda. The shawl features handcrafted designs made with satin stitches. These designs primarily consist of geometrical patterns arranged in colour-coded lines, rows, and triangles. The art of this unique embroidery requires a sense of arithmetic and geometry to create intricate geometrical weave patterns. Each geometrical design woven has a close intimacy to nature, as this tribal group lives close to nature and loves to protect it and believes in giving back to the nature.
Dongria Kandh women are very active and dedicated to their culture and tradition. Women embroider in their leisure time and teach the skill to every generation. This magical embroidery technique is passed down through generations. It is a way of life, and young girls learned this skill from Dongria Kandha women at a young age. It is considered the duty of elder women of the family and community to teach the young girls to knit the shawl in a definite design to carry forward the tradition to the next generation.
The embroidery of the Kapdaganda shawl is closely related to the tradition, festivals, and ethnicity of the Dongria kandhas. Dongria Kandhas now weave coarse cotton shawls from khadi yarn, which is produced locally. Now even they changed the technique from embroidery to weaving and it takes around 4 to 5 days to make a shawl and a minimum of 8 days to produce a sari.
Initiatives to Promote Kapdaganda
In recent years, there has been a growing attraction among the urban elites towards the indigenous art motifs and symbols. This attractive piece of art is not only popular in the state or nation but also widely popular in foreign countries. With their permission and involvement, dongria motifs and fabrics are now replicated in other mediums such as mobile covers, masks, handbags, jackets, belts, and many more. Now the traditional shawl replicated into beautiful hand-woven saris in cotton. The exquisite weaving and intrinsic part of Dongria Kandhas’ cultural ethos make this sari an epitome of elegance and grace, which define the women of today. This is a welcome step indeed because of the mutual agreements and involvement of the weavers and designers.
Now even woven clothes are provided by the Dongria Kandha Development Agency (DKDA) to the artisans on which they embroidered the motifs. Now some agencies and SHGs provide training to women of the Dongria Kandha community, and also help them with the marketing of their product. A shawl- selling centre and workshop for the weavers are established at Rayagada. This encourages the tourists to know, how the shawls are woven, and they also buy them directly from the weavers.
Conclusion
These attractive shawls and saris, which use one of the costly cotton materials, are much in demand in the national and international markets. Few weavers and private organisations, realising the popularity of dongria motifs, have tried to create the cheap replicas. In the e-commerce platforms, one will be surprised to discover a huge quantity of Dongria saris for sale, but a few questions may come to our mind: whether the permission is granted from Dongrias if their designs are re-used? How ethical this practice is? How are Dongrias going to benefit financially from profit sharing? Recently, Kapdaganda Shawl received GI tags and let us hope this step will provide the tribal weavers with legal help in preventing duplication of their traditional designs.
References
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